If you're struggling to understand native English speakers, you're in the right place.
We're going to improve your listening skills so you can understand native speakers the
first time.
Welcome back to JForrest English.
Of course.
I'm Jennifer.
Now let's get started.
Here's how this lesson will work.
I'm going to say a sentence three times, and you need to write down exactly what you hear
in the comments.
After, I'll explain exactly what I said, and I'll explain the pronunciation changes that
take place in fast English, and I'll also explain the advanced expressions that I used.
Are you ready for your first listening test?
Remember, I'll say it three times.
They've been bickering all day.
Did you get this one?
I said they've been bickering all day.
Let's talk about the pronunciation changes.
Notice I have Dave.
This is a contraction.
They have Dave, Dave, Dave.
Native speakers use contractions in spoken English almost 100% of the time.
So you need to be very, very comfortable hearing the contraction because it affects the grammar
of the sentence you need to have.
They have been bickering because that shows the grammar, and the grammar is the present
perfect continuous.
So if you didn't have that, it would be grammatically incorrect.
They've been bickering all day now.
Notice I said bin bin, a very unstressed bin.
This is how we pronounce the past participle of the verb be bin in American English.
I don't speak British English, but I believe in British English they pronounce it more
stressed bean.
But in American English we don't do that.
We just say bin bin.
They've been.
They've been bickering all day.
Now, to understand fast English outside of the classroom, you need to hear the individual
words.
But you also have to understand the meaning of the words.
So let's talk about the verb to bicker.
This is when you argue about things that are not important.
The concept of bickering is extremely common and everyone does it, and we usually do it
with people we spend the most time with.
Our family, our spouses, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, our close friends,
our Co workers that we spend a lot of time with.
Anytime you spend a lot of time with someone, it's common that you'll bicker, but it's different
from fighting.
Because when you're fighting with someone, usually there's a strong emotion involved,
but when you bicker, you don't really have that emotion.
It's less serious because the things you're arguing about fighting about are not actually
important.
Like I said, this can be very common in the workplace when you spend a lot of time with
your coworkers.
So maybe you're in a meeting and you've been discussing an issue for hours with your Co
workers.
But people start bickering, they start arguing about things that aren't important.
You could say we didn't get anything done today because we bickered all meeting.
We are getting bicker.
Yeah, we bicker.
Either.
Yeah, well, we were bickering because they were bickering.
Kids are bickering.
Let's try this again with another listening exercise.
I'll say it three times that Streets pretty sketchy.
That Streets pretty sketchy.
How'd you do with this one?
I said that Streets pretty sketchy.
Did you hear that?
Streets.
The S?
Well, that is the verb to be in a contraction form.
The street is the streets.
The streets.
Pretty sketchy.
Again, it's extremely important that you hear these contractions for grammar because we
need the verb to be grammatically.
The sentence would sound very awkward if you didn't have it, because it would be grammatically
incorrect.
That street's pretty sketchy.
Sketchy.
Sketchy Sketchy sketchy.
Let's talk about to be sketchy.
That street is our verb to be to be sketchy.
This is used to say that something is not completely safe.
So by saying that street is pretty sketchy, I'm saying that street doesn't look completely
safe.
I don't think that street is safe.
So I'm saying we shouldn't go down that street.
We should avoid that street.
Now why would I say this street is sketchy?
This is an adjective that native speakers use a lot.
If I say streets sketchy, it's most likely because it's dark or lacks lighting.
There aren't a lot of people around, there's broken glass or broken windows, or there are
a lot of abandoned buildings on that street.
It could be all of those reasons, or it could be just one of those reasons for me to say
that street doesn't look safe.
That street's pretty sketchy.
I could say let's take another St.
This one looks sketchy, so I can also use the verb look look sketchy, but I have to
conjugate it.
This street looks sketchy.
Or let's say your friend or your husband or your wife came to you and said hey, I heard
this amazing business proposal today.
All we need to do is invest $1000 and we're guaranteed $100,000 and you could say that
sounds sketchy.
So notice here the verb is to sound sketchy, and you're saying the idea, the plan, the
business proposal doesn't sound completely safe.
We also use this to describe people.
He's a sketchy guy or he's sketchy.
She's sketchy.
In this case, you're saying the person isn't safe, which means you can't trust the person.
So with people, it's a way of saying I don't think I can trust him.
She's sketchy.
He's sketchy.
Seems a little sketchy.
You're kind of sketchy.
Laundry to some sketchy laundromat.
Let's try another listening exercise.
I'll say it three times.
You must have seen it.
Did you get this one?
You must have seen it.
But notice I didn't actually say.
Have I reduced that entirely to just ah, you musta, you musta.
I could also reduce it to more of an of sound, which is very commonly done by native speakers.
You must have, you must have.
You must have seen it.
Notice for seen it.
I use that N, that N sound to connect the 2 words together.
Seen it, Seen it, Seen it.
So you hear it.
N in front of it.
It sounds like NIT.
But if you say those two words together, it blends together.
Seen it, Seen it, You must have seen it.
Now let's talk about the grammar of this.
A must is a modal verb, and grammatically you need must plus base verb, which is the
verb without two.
So grammatically you need must have.
In written English you must use must have seen it because that's grammatically correct.
But in spoken English it will sound like must ah or must of.
But in written English, if you wrote you must ah or of, it would be incorrect grammatically.
So just remember what I'm explaining is for spoken English you must have seen it 200 times.
You must have seen it 2:00.
You must have seen them.
Here, Let's try this one more time.
I'll say it three times.
What's the ETA?
I said, what's the ETA?
Of course we have what's that's a contraction of what is what's what's the now?
Because ETA it begins with a vowel sound.
EI could say either the OR the 'cause we do a more stressed the when the next word starts
in a vowel.
But this isn't a rule that native speakers follow all the time.
But if I did a more stressed E in the IT would really blend together with ETA, the TA, and
it would almost sound like it's just one word, the TA, because I wouldn't really repeat the
E on ETA, the ETA.
I believe in my example, when I did the listening test, I think the first time I did it more
of the ETA, and the second time I did it, more of the ETA, and the sounds blended together.
Let's listen to that again and see what I did.
What's the ETA?
Now, ultimately, either way that you pronounce it, the ETA or the ETA is fine.
Now you're probably wondering, well what's ETA?
This stands for estimated time of arrival.
So your ETA, the ETA or someone somethings ETA is the estimated time of arrival for that
someone or something when it's expected to arrive.
So let's say we're talking about a project, and your boss wants to know when this project
will arrive.
In his inbox or on his desk, he could say what's the ETA and he could just say the If
it's obvious you're talking about the project, he could say what's your ETA because you're
the one submitting the project.
Or he could say what's the project's ETA, so the ETA belongs to the project.
So you need that possessive.
What's the project's ETA?
And they all have the same meaning.
We commonly use this with friends or coworkers, family members to let them know when we're
going to arrive.
So let's say you were supposed to be at your family's house at 7:00 for dinner, but you're
running late.
You could send them a text message and say running late.
Google says my ETA is 642 or 15 minutes.
Now, Google says because when you put something in a GPS, Google will tell you or whatever
you use.
Google will tell you when you're expected to arrive.
That's your ETA.
What's their ETA okay, ETA ETA 11 minutes.
Now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation as well.
So I'm going to say each sentence again, and then I want you to repeat the sentence out
loud and try to imitate my pronunciation as closely as possible.
And I'll say each sentence three times.
Let's do that right now.
They've been bickering all day.
That street's pretty sketchy.
You must have seen it.
What's the ETA?
Did you enjoy testing your listening skills?
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in the comments.
Put more, more, more in the comments so I know you want me to make more lessons just
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And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently
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You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description.
In this lesson, we focused on your listening skills.
So why don't you watch this lesson and you'll focus on your reading skills?
Watch it right now.